


Except a Memory, A Distant Echo

by mohinikapuahi



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-21
Updated: 2012-09-21
Packaged: 2017-11-14 17:55:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/517955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mohinikapuahi/pseuds/mohinikapuahi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It doesn't take much for a good night to turn bad</p>
            </blockquote>





	Except a Memory, A Distant Echo

The pungent scent of strong hospital disinfectants was all too familiar to Danny. He dropped into the molded plastic seat at the wall behind him physically and mentally exhausted, but keenly aware that his day/night was far from over. Leaning forward he let his head fall into his hands, trying desperately to reel in the myriad of emotions that were roiling around him. Emotions that threatened to eject the contents of his stomach with every heartbreaking revolution. He always knew he’d end up in this position; he knew better than anyone else on the plant that his partner was too damned fond of diving into danger than he should be. He also knew that it was never foolhardy, the greater the danger to his loved ones, the less care Steve had for personal danger. That should have been Danny’s first in a long list of concerns. Especially now. 

Danny’s fingers scraped across his face, the heels of his hands pushing at his eye sockets, trying to push the fear and worry back, memories drifting back to pleasant recollections earlier in the night. 

They had spent a miserable 72 hours at work, a kidnapping case that had gone bad, really bad. In the end, it had turned out that their victim had been dead before the ransom note had even been sent, but that didn’t help the team, or more to the point Commander I-must-bear-the-weight-of every-loss-personally. Super SEAL despite the successful capture of the kidnappers, had taken the loss of the teenaged victim like a personal blow. Danny had known then that it was time for them to put aside work and let nature take it’s course.

So, three hours ago he’d been blissfully dropping onto his bed after a very nice night out. Dinner, a gently, romantic date no less, concluding with gentle exploratory kisses befitting a first date at the car door and whispered promises of future neither of them had dared to dream about had been the makings of a perfect evening. 

Once home, he’d showered and had only just crawled into bed when the phone trilled it’s familiar “In the Navy” ringtone. With a fond smile, and ignoring the way his heart had taken to tripping a beat at the sound, he’d pressed the button to connect the call, hoping for a slightly saucy bedtime chat, as he’d flopped back against the pillows and covered himself with his sheet. Within minutes he’d flicked back the covers and was groping for his jeans then rifling through his dresser and grabbing a simple black tee-shirt to pull over his head, panic gripping an icy fist around his wildly beating heart.

In a frantic daze he was halfway to the hospital before he was even aware of his actions, desperately needing a focus to distract from the thoughts pinging around in his mind, Danny hit the third number on his speed dial list.

“You _do_ know what time it is don’t you?” Chin’s sleep slurred voice filled the cabin of the Camaro.

“It’s me…Danny.” Danny spoke distractedly, pushing his free hand through his hair, his eyes flickering around the nearly empty streets, noticing for the first time since he’d answered the phone in his apartment that it was raining, the wipers on his car windscreen sluicing torrents of water across the glass.

“Okay, Me Danny, what can I do for you at 1.35am on a Monday morning? Or is this just a social call, because you do know that Sunday night is loving night at the Kelly house.” Chin yawned, his voice happy.

“Hi Danny.” Malia called sleepily.

“It’s raining.” Danny murmured, almost to himself eyes following the path of the wiper blades as he sat waiting at a red stop signal on the wet, deserted street. 

“So you wanted to give me a weather report?” Chin probed, the hairs on the back of his neck starting to twitch at the oddly detached tone in Danny’s voice, as he stretched one hand out to grasp Malia’s in his own.

“Fuck, I’m sorry Chin. Didn’t think. Go back to sleep, I’ll call you in the morning. God, I’m sorry, just forget I called.” Danny frowned as he realised he’d woken both of them.

“Danny? What’s up? You’re starting to worry me, brah. Why aren’t I getting the Laurel and Hardy show I love so much? Where is our fearless leader?” Chin probed, his voice now fully alert as he realized the distinct lack of a McGarrett in this particular equation.

“It’s Steve. “ Danny responded unable to hide the anxious edge to his voice.

“Spit it out Danny, What. Has. Happened?”

“Wait.” Danny heard the resignation in Chin’s voice realising that he was thinking what the rest of the team had always expected. “No it’s not that. Jesus, don’t even think that Chin. He’s at Queens.”

“What happened?” Chin swung his legs off the side of the bed.

“I don’t know, I just got a call from a paramedic, on Steve’s phone. He was found unconscious in an alley, he woke briefly and didn’t know who he was. The paramedics recognised his truck before they recognised him. They wouldn’t tell me how bad it was Chin, but he didn’t know who he was. That can’t be fucking good, can it. They didn’t recognise him and you know how often they see him, but he didn’t know who he was either. How much of a number have they done on him to crack that hard head?.” Danny ran one hand over his face weighing up the consequences of using his lights and sirens to get to the hospital faster as he listened to Chin and Malia talking, garbled, probably by Chin’s hand over the phone he thought idly, and then was startled by Malia’s soft soothing voice in his ear.

“It could be a number of things Danny, but he was conscious, that’s the main thing. I’m going to see what I can find out by phone, I’m going to give you back to Chin while I do that, then as soon as I’m dressed we’ll meet you there.”

“He’ll be okay Danny you know he’s superhuman. It’s going to be okay. We’ll meet you there.” Chin responded soothingly.

“No need for you to lose sleep too, I just wanted to let you know that we won’t be in in the morning. And give you a heads up on the crime scene we’ll have. Go back to sleep. I shouldn’t have woken you.” Danny shrugged then as his mind was struck by another thought he rambled quickly on. “No maybe you should go and process the scene, it’s Steve after all, who knows who in HPD he’s pissed off, they might ‘overlook’ something. I really shouldn’t say that. They’re professional, mostly.”

“Danny.” Chin spoke authoritatively, his voice cutting over Danny’s nervous rambling.

“What?” Danny snapped at Chin, smacking the steering wheel with the flat of his hand as he stopped at yet another light.

“You’re not doing yourself any good getting yourself in a mood.” Chin tried to sooth him, “Just wait until you get there. It might be nothing.”

“What about the fact that they recognized his truck before they did him?” Danny asked in a growl. “That’s supposed to reassure me?”

“I’ll admit that doesn’t sound very reassuring but you know things are always larger than life with Steve.”

“Yeah.” Danny sighed blowing out a huff of impatient breath, “I’m sorry I upset your night Chin, Go back to sleep. I’ll text you.”

“We’ll meet you there. And before you argue, we want to, Danny, he’s our friend too. We wouldn’t sleep now anyway.” Chin answered softly. “Besides, it might help having Malia there, she can translate the medico speak for us at the very least, maybe even stop them stonewalling us like they do.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. I shouldn’t have implied that you wouldn’t care. I’m worried Chin. Why didn’t he call me? It must be bad if he couldn’t call.” Danny rambled his voice trailing off as his words couldn’t process what his mind was thinking, before he shook his head trying to collect his thoughts and maybe even himself, “I just needed someone to talk to while I drove, you know, I don’t think it would be a good move for me to end up in ER too,” he laughed mirthlessly, “I was halfway to Queens before I even realised I was in the car, I’m dressed like a bum because I wasn’t even aware of getting dressed. I don’t understand why he didn’t call me if he knew he was in trouble. I could have helped him. What if his luck has run out?”

“Danny, please pull over, tell me where you are, at least let me take care of you. Steve wouldn’t want you driving like this. I’ll swing past.” Chin asked soothingly as he pulled his shoes on, the phone pressed between his ear and his shoulder. “Malia can drive the Camaro, and you can just try to chill out.” He glanced at her for confirmation as he watched her wriggle into a pair of soft denim jeans, nodding at him as she zipped them.

“No, I’m almost there now.” Danny shook his head forgetting that Chin was on the other end of a phone line.

“He’s going to be alright, Danny, you know that don’t you?” Chin responded quietly hearing the panicked distraction in Danny’s voice.

“No. I don’t know that Zen master.” Danny snarked at him. “I left him less than two hours ago. We had been to dinner, and I said goodbye to him at his truck, told him I’d see him in the morning. Now he’s in ER probably fighting for his life, if he wasn’t they wouldn’t have called me from his phone, from the ambulance, told me it would be a good idea for me to be there and they certainly wouldn’t have demanded I get to the hospital as soon as I could. If I hadn’t insisted we went in separate cars this probably wouldn’t have happened. It’s my fault he’s there, granted we might have a whole different set of issues but at least he wouldn’t be hurt.”

“Different Issues?” Chin frowned, “Danny you’re not making any sense, what issues?”

“Doesn’t matter now. I shouldn’t have borrowed trouble, we should have just gone together not separately. I should have waited to make sure he got home okay. Besides which, you know what a machine he is, and don’t you dare tell him I said that, I’ll never hear the end of it. But we both know it would have taken a small army to take him down, I should have been there to help him. That’s what partner’s do. It’s my fault he was in trouble and alone.”

“You don’t know that, and you don’t know that it wouldn’t have been the two of you in there if you hadn’t. Calm down, we’re already on the bike, we’ll be at the hospital in ten minutes. Do you need me to swing by and find you or are you okay?”

“Pulling into the hospital now.” Danny answered quickly. “Chin?”

“Yeah,” Chin frowned, feeling Malia’s arms tighten around him.

“He’ll be okay.” Danny replied, “This is probably nothing, right?” 

“Absolutely. We’re five minutes away, hang tight.”

Danny pulled the car into a space close to the door. He paused only long enough to slam the door shut before he ran into the hospital. Minutes later Chin flicked the lights and windscreen wipers off as he and Malia swept into the waiting room. Danny sat in a chair, his fingers tapping at the hard plastic of the seat beside him, recalcitrant after being rebuffed at the counter at least once. Chin sank into the seat beside him and held his car keys out to him, Malia offered him an encouraging smile before moving quickly into the depths of the surgical area. 

“Heard anything, Detective?” Chin asked with a small smile, his hand reaching out to grip Danny’s knee.

“Only that I’m an impatient bastard that needs to wait in the waiting room until someone can spare the time to come and talk to me.” Danny responded quietly.

“It’ll be alright Danny. He’s tough.” Chin consoled him, slipping an arm around Danny’s shoulders to hug him awkwardly.

“We need to get Kono out to process the crime scene before HPD fuck it up.” He leaned back in the seat for long enough to pull a crumpled post-it note out of his jeans pocket. One corner folded back and smeared with a browning stain. “One of the Paramedics, Akele, you remember him, the big guy with all the ink? He was waiting for me when I got here, that’s the address where they picked him up. They left him in the gutter, Chin. Face down in the gutter. What if that is how he finally gets it? He’s a hero, he doesn’t deserve that, no one deserves that.” Danny laughed mirthlessly to himself, “I suppose, he’s lucky someone found him before morning or even that they could be assed to call it in.” He turned to face Chin, but couldn’t help his gaze slipping past Chin’s shoulder to the doors at the end of the corridor. “We need Kono to work her magic.”

“Already on it, brah.” Chin nodded, “she was going to track down Fong and get started processing.”

“We should probably go too, we aren’t doing anything here.” Danny sat down heavily but then started to lift out of the chair only to have Chin pull him back down.

“If anyone’s going anywhere it will be me and I’m not going anywhere until we know how he is.” Chin stated. 

“Danny?” Malia spoke softly as she walked towards them, her eyes flicking towards Chin with a small smile before she knelt in front of Danny. “He’s going to be okay.”

“Are you sure?” Danny asked.

“Don’t get me wrong, he’s not in good shape, but they don’t think its life threatening at the moment.” 

“They don’t think? What is wrong with him?” Danny stood sharply pacing to the other side of the room and back. “What happened to him? And what the hell does at the moment mean?” His voice rose in decibels with each step he took, his hands vacillating between waving wildly in the air and scrubbing across his face to drag roughly through his hair.

“Danny, sit down.” Chin spoke calmly but firmly clearly wishing for Steve’s capacity for reigning in Danny’s mood.

“I won’t sit down. I want to know what is going on with him.” Danny hissed, his lips pressed together in a thin line, his hands scraping at his scalp, both of them pulling his hair back between his fingers as he struggled to control his fear and anger.

“Detective!” Chin spoke sharply, rising to his feet and moving to stand in front of Danny. “He needs you to keep your shit together.” He pressed a large warm hand to Danny’s shoulder to soften the harshness of his tone, “Danny, please, sit down and listen to what Malia knows.”

Danny drew in a deep shuddering breath, letting his eyes slide closed for a few long seconds, willing him to calm down, trying to stop his heart from racing with fear. Sinking into a seat, he put a hand on Malia’s denim covered knee and looked up to smile grimly into her face.

“I’m sorry, Malia, I never meant to sound ungrateful.” He spoke softly as he held the fingers of one hand up pinching about an inch of air between them. “I’m just a little bit worried.”

“It’s alright, Danny. I understand, honestly I do.” Malia smiled reassuringly at him.

“You okay, now, Danny?” Chin squatted in front of him, offering whatever comfort he could.

Danny nodded shortly and turned his attention back to Malia.

“He’s been very badly beaten. Blunt force trauma to the back of his head, multiple stitches there, his face is badly bruised and scraped, he was stabbed with what they presume is a bottle through his upper arm, several ribs are broken, and his ulna is badly broken. But his biggest problem is that he couldn’t remember who he was in the short time he was awake.”

“Not at all?” Danny gasped.

“Not at all. In fact they said he was quite agitated. He took out two orderlies trying to escape.” Malia answered reaching out and stroking Danny’s arm gently.

“What does that mean?” Danny pulled away from Malia, crossing his arms across his chest. Chin stood and sat on the seat next to his wife.

“Maybe nothing.” Malia perched on the edge of a seat next to Chin, leaning into his touch as one of his hands lifted to stroke her back. “It might have just been a blip while his brain was dealing with the trauma and he’ll remember it all when he wakes up. It might be short term memory loss that means he’ll never remember what exactly what happened, but memories before a certain point will return, or it might be permanent and he won’t remember who he is or what he does. We just won’t know until he wakes up. The best they can diagnose in that regard is that he does have some brain swelling but that is to be expected. At the moment, we just need to be thankful that his skull didn’t fracture.”

“Do they have any idea what happened to him?” Chin asked.

“Only that he was beaten, and there were splinters of pale wood embedded in his wounds. They’ve been speculating it was a baseball bat, but he’s got what was suggested as shoe prints bruised onto his torso, too.” Malia explained quietly as she rose to her feet. “They’re nearly ready to take him off to surgery for his arm, I’m going to go and see if I can help or find anything else out.”

She leaned down to press a kiss to Chin’s forehead before walking quickly off. Both men sat there in silence for some time before Danny spoke wearily.

“They kicked him while he was on the ground? What sort of assholes are they?” Danny murmured, his head tilted back against the wall. He let his head rest there for several long minutes, willing himself to calm down and think clearly and calmly.

“We need to go back to the office and start going through our old cases, see if we can work out who did this to him.” Danny sat upright as he spoke.

“You don’t think this is random?” Chin leaned forward his elbows on his knees, looking sideways at Danny.

“He’s a Navy SEAL for God’s sake, we’ve both seen him take on half an army, the Yakuza, the HPD, half the fucking world at the same time and he always come out on top. This can’t have happened more than half an hour after I left him, and the address I gave you? Is not even a block from the restaurant where we ate. Something happened there, and God help me it’s at least partially my fault.”

“This has nothing to do with you Danny.” Chin responded instantly.

“Of course it does. Maybe not directly, but I’m a fucking detective; I should have noticed he had a tail. I was so distracted that they could have been sitting at the next table with a camera and I wouldn’t have noticed.” Danny answered, standing and starting to pace in front of Chin, searching his mind for any memory of surveillance earlier in the night.

“Distracted? Is Rachel trying to take Grace off the islands again?” Chin frowned, leaning back and watching Danny.

“I wish it was that easy.” Danny sighed, “I was on a date. A date that I’ve been anticipating for such a long time I thought it was never going to happen.” Danny stopped pacing and slid his hands into his pockets watching Chin closely.

“I thought you were with….” Chin’s voice trailed off as he began to understand the implications of what Danny was saying, a grin splitting his face as he realized. “How long?”

“First date.” Danny couldn’t help but smile at his memory of the early part of the night. “I was so nervous about it. You know what a bull in a china shop he is. Charging in all guns blazing attacking on so many fronts that you never know how not to surrender. I was so worried that was how he was going to be, so I wouldn’t let him pick me up. I made him drive there alone.” Danny sank into a chair beside Chin. “If I hadn’t been playing the virtuous maiden, he wouldn’t be fighting for his life.”

“You don’t know that. It could be the two of you in there now, not just him.” Chin reasoned.

“I know that, but it’s not helping.” Danny sighed. “If I had let him pick me up the night would have ended so differently.”

“A. You don’t know that, and B it isn’t going to do him any good having you sitting out here futzing around blaming yourself for him being in there.” Chin stopped speaking at the sound of booted feet tapping quickly down the hallway towards them.

“Danny!” Kono called, almost sprinting the last few feet and launched herself against him leaving him no choice but to close her arms around him. “How is he? Is he okay?” She pulled back to look into his face. “Are you alright?” She looked over his head into Chin’s face her brow furrowed.

“Geez, let a guy catch a breath, or at least pause between questions.” Danny pulled her to him for a quick, tight hug, before pulling back and out of her embrace. “Malia says he’s okay.” Danny nodded, his words thick as he struggled to push the words out to reassure Kono. “What did you find at the scene?”

“The rain didn’t help.” She answered honestly. “The whole alleyway is the testimony to the fact that he put up a hell of a fight. I think he cut at least one of them with a bottle. We’ve got a bottle with fingerprints and blood stains. There was a broken baseball bat that we’ve bagged and tagged. No witnesses that we’ve found but HPD are canvassing two full blocks. Best we’ve been able to come up with is that a car alarm went off for at least 20 mins and started at 2335.”

“You’re doing the whole military time thing now too? What is he contagious?” Danny grumbled.

“What can I say, Danny?” Kono grinned at him. “I’m just a minion.”

“What else?” 

“I got Fong out of bed to start processing the bottle and the bat and the rest of the stuff we collected in the alley. They’re going to tow the Truck at first light and so what they can get off of it.”

“Tow the truck?” Chin frowned.

“Whoever they were they really did a number on it. All the windows were broken and I don’t think there was a panel that doesn’t need work, and they’ve sprayed things all over it.”

“Sprayed?” Danny questioned.

“Stuff that I’m not going to repeat. Homophobic Crap. But someone really has it in for him.”

“Anti gay?” Chin frowned.

“Yeah, I didn’t get it either, Cuz.” Kono shrugged. 

“I don’t think it’s a past case, Danny.” Chin responded as Danny’s phone trilled in his pocket.

Glancing at it, he saw the Governor’s name and lifted it higher. “I have to take this guys.”

He pressed the phone to his ear as Chin and Kono both nodded.

“Governor?” Danny spoke into his phone, “What can I do for you?”

“I take it the reports I have received are correct?” Denning spoke sharply, “Commander McGarrett is injured?”

“Yes, sir.” Danny responded.

“My office, Detective. Fifteen minutes.”

“Sir. I’m sorry, but I’d prefer to stay at the hospital, unless this a new case, respectfully couldn’t this wait until morning?”

“You’ll be in my office in fifteen minutes Detective. Because believe me, you don’t want this conversation to happen at the hospital. “

“Yes sir.” Danny gritted out through teeth clenched in anger, before he stabbed the end call button with his thumb.

Slipping his phone back into his pocket, he stood staring down the hall towards where Steve was before turning back to face Chin and Kono.

“I’ve been summoned.” He answered their unspoken questions. “Kono, can you please follow up whatever you can. Chin can you stay here with him? Please don’t let him wake up alone. I’ll be back as soon as Denning’s finished tearing me a new one.”

“Go, Danny.” Chin urged, “We’ll look after him.”

Danny turned one more look down the corridor towards Steve and turned to jog out of the building. Exactly nine minutes after his summons, Danny strode into the Governor’s office.

“Detective.” The governor nodded at him from where he sat behind the desk.

“Governor.” Danny bit out tightly, his hands clasped behind his back as he stood; watching as Denning wrote a few more words and placed his pen on the desk, carefully straightening his paperwork. “If you don’t mind, I need to be at the hospital. My partner has been injured.”

“Yes, I heard about Commander McGarrett, and in a circuitous way that is why I summoned you here.”

“You want to talk about Steve?” Danny frowned.

“Only in that I need you to clarify your position.” Denning leaned back in his chair, his hands on the edge of his desk.

“My position, I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Danny spoke confused by the entire conversation.

“I’ve received some fairly specific complaints about your partner.” Denning stated.

Danny sighed, moving from what Steve would describe as parade rest, to jamming his hands in his pockets and stepping forward to plead Steve’s case. “Listen, I know he has some unorthodox methods, but you know better than anybody that he gets results.”

“I wasn’t talking about his skills, Detective, I was referring to his business and personal ethics.”

“What are you talking about?” Danny frowned, the hairs on the back of his neck prickling at Denning’s tone, annoyed at his implications on Steve’s behalf. “The man is a goddamned highly decorated Navy SEAL, his ethics cannot be maligned by you.”

“Then why exactly am I being informed that he is carrying on a personal relationship with one of his team members?”

“Even if that were happening, how is that your business or even unethical?” Danny spoke his voice tight, and drawing himself up to his full height he was just as imposing as Steve.

“It’s my business because it affects the way the team functions.” Denning leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of him as he watched Danny’s response.

“His involvement with any member of our team will never change. Every member of the team is family to him, they will never be harmed on his watch if it’s humanly possible for him to stop it and besides which, he treats everyone on the team equally.”

“Not every member it would seem.” 

Suddenly it was like a bulb went off over Danny’s head. He knew exactly where this was coming from and he knew why. His temper seethed just below the surface, his indignation at what was nothing more than a spiteful childish tantrum was barely contained.

“This is because Weston’s nose is out of joint?” Danny looked at him shrewdly, realising the reason for his summons as he spoke. “This was caused your spy running back to you with her tail between her legs because he knocked her back?”

“It’s nothing of the sort. She voiced her concerns that Commander McGarrett may be intimately involved with one of the team members and that it may be impairing his judgement on the job.”

“And she just might happen to think it’s impairing his judgement because he didn’t have the good sense to take her up on her offers?”

“She’s an excellent agent, Detective.” Denning leaned forward in his chair, resting his arms on his desk as he spoke.

“I’m sure she is. Just not in a team where she is smitten with the leader. She was the deficit to the team, not Steve. She couldn’t see past her own attraction and jealousy towards the rest of us that her judgment was impaired. Had she stayed she wouldn’t have been able to do her job properly because of her feelings. Not the other way around. For God’s sake the man continued doing his job even while hearing his father executed by a terrorist. Don’t you dare try to tell me that he can’t do his job properly because of his emotional involvement? His emotions, which in this case is primarily his love for his team, they are what drives him, even the idiot criminals can see that, surely you can. You have a term for it here, Ohana, we are and always will be Steve’s family.” Danny unclipped his badge from his belt and threw it onto Denning’s desk. “You want to punish someone for him loving his family? Start with me.”

“Are you done, Detective?” Governor Denning stood, straightening his jacket as he did.

“Yes sir.” Danny stood taller, waiting for a response.

“Consider this a warning. I don’t want to hear any more Chinese whispers about the goings on in Five-0. Next time, if I’m not happy with the explanation one half of the equation will be off the task force. Do I make myself clear?” Denning pushed Danny’s badge back across the desk with two long fingers.

Danny stood straighter, his tightly fisted hands plunged into his pockets, his lips narrowed into a tight thin line, but nodded with one short jerky movement.

“Now take your badge and get out there and do your job.“

Danny nodded tightly and collected his badge, before he turned on his heel, walking quickly out of the office. 

~*~*~*~*~

Pulling his phone from his pocket as he stalked out of the building and towards the Camaro, Danny dialled a number that he wished he didn’t remember.

“Officer Lori Weston.” Her voice spoke professionally into his ear.

“What did you do it for?” Danny’s voice was tight; his words clipped but still dripping with his fury.

“Hi Danny.” Lori’s voice was guarded, “Do what?”

“He didn’t want you. Why couldn’t you just leave him alone?”

“He didn’t want me because he wants you. You were both the only ones that couldn’t see it.”

“Courtesy of your mouth he’s fighting for his life. I hope you’re happy.”

“Wait, what?” Lori spluttered, flicking her hair over her shoulder she pressed the phone closer to her ear.

“That’s right, because you couldn’t let it go that someone didn’t want you he’s in hospital on the receiving end of a hate crime bashing. Who did you tell?”

“I never told anyone, Danny.”

“Well we never did, so since you’re the only one that has said anything to anyone about whatever the fuck you think you know, it has to have been you.”

“I swear I never told anyone but the Governor, and I never told him it was you. Give me more credit than that.” Lori explained quickly.

“Well somebody fucking broadcast it, why else would it happen?” Danny growled and disconnected the call and pushed his phone into his pocket as he slid into the car.

By the time Danny got back to the hospital he was furious, barely containing his anger long enough to make it back to Chin.

“All sorted?” Chin asked amiably, his eyes narrowing as he took in Danny’s angry countenance and his furious demeanor.

“You don’t even want to know.” Danny waved him away, too pissed off to speak to Chin about it. “How’s Steve?”

“No word yet, Malia said it might be a couple of hours.”

“Do you know where Lori is staying?” Danny asked deflating a little with relief as he sank down into a seat a couple up from Chin.

“Not sure, she might even be already on the mainland.” Chin shrugged, “Why?”

“She bitched to the Governor about us.” 

“Bitched, how? About what? What have I missed?” Chin frowned leaning closer to Danny, waiting for his explanation.

Danny almost laughed at the level of hilarity of that statement inside his head. The small chuckle bubbling from his lips the perfect distraction from the blood boiling anger that had been consuming him.

“You somehow missed the eyelash batting and the insipid pining?” Danny quirked an eyebrow at Chin as he spoke.

“Hell no. But what did she have to bitch about?” Chin shrugged, his brow furrowed until Danny almost saw the light bulb flash on above his head. “This is sour grapes?”

“Probably. She told him that Steve was having an unethical, personal relationship with a team member.” Danny responded. “I can’t help but think that this is somehow related to what happened tonight.”

“Given the gay slurs on his truck I tend to agree with you.” Chin spoke as Malia put her hand on his shoulder.

“Danny?” she spoke softly as she sank onto Chin’s knee. “He’s in a room; would you like me to take you to him?”

Danny looked at her and smiled tiredly. “No, I’ll be fine. You two should go home, you look exhausted.”

“He probably won’t wake until morning. You should try and get some sleep.” Malia offered.

“I will.” Danny nodded as he stood and stretched his back. “I’ll text you as soon as Sleeping Beauty is awake.”

Malia stood and hugged Danny warmly, “He’ll be okay, Danny.” She whispered in his ear as she hugged him.

Danny nodded and walked down the hall towards Steve’s room. At the door he paused. He still hadn’t seen his partner and was deeply concerned at what he was going to see. Given that it had taken the truck for the paramedics to recognize him, Danny’s own imagination was doing a real number on him. 

Taking a deep breath he stepped through the door, his head down until he reached the side of the bed. Looking up he couldn’t withhold a sharp gasp as he saw Steve. His partner’s face a swollen and bruised contortion of his normally handsome features, a sheet covered his body to his navel, showing his heavily bandaged torso splattered with deep blue and red bruises and grazes. An angry gash on his upper arm closed with tight black sutures, but there was also a heavy cast on his forearm. Danny reached out a hand to close over Steve’s uninjured hand, folding his fingers around Steve’s trying to give him the connection that he needed.

“It’s okay, babe,” he murmured softly, “You rest, I’m here now, we’ll find who did this and I’ll keep you safe until you can do it yourself.”

Glancing around the room, Danny released Steve’s bare fingers only long enough to pull a chair to the side of the bed before he sank into the chair. He leaned his elbows on the edge of the bed, his fingers lacing through Steve’s, his thumb grazing across the broken skin he found there. He sighed as he realised just how hard Steve had fought to save himself from the damage that had been done to him, then leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to Steve’s knuckles.

Resting his head against the mattress, Danny maintained his light grasp on Steve's hand, giving him the contact they both needed, it had been a long day and the night had proven even longer, he sighed, the noise a gentle puff of breath against Steve's fingertips, his eyes drifting closed as Steve's fingertips twitched slowly under Danny's hand.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Yo." 

Kono's whispered voice in his ear woke him with a start.

"Need you to come outside brah, I've got news."

"Good news?"Danny murmured tiredly, his hair standing at right angles, his eyes more bloodshot than not.

"Not great but better than I had hoped for this soon." Kono answered quickly. "Outside."

"Bossy." Danny grumped but was on his feet and following Kono into the mostly deserted corridor. "What time is it?"

"Little after 5." Kono shrugged. "We got em."

"Got who?" 

"Steve's Attackers." Kono answered. "Turns out it's really not so hard to find homophobic asses. Especially when they post pictures of their latest 'rectification' to their personal Facebook accounts."

"Wait, slow down. Backup. What?" Danny scrubbed a hand across his face, desperately trying to keep up with what Kono was saying.

"And,FYI, I'm kinda pissed Brah, why didn't you tell me?" 

"What?” Danny paused desperately trying to keep up with Kono’s statements. “It's not like that, Ninja girl, last night was our first date, and we weren't even sure ourselves."

"You should be. You were dating even when you weren't." Kono leaned in to hug him tightly, releasing him and looking him up and down appraisingly. "You look like shit, brah."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Danny ran his fingers through his hair trying in vain to save some sort of style. "Now what about the bad guys?"

"I got a call from Lori, seems she got a call from a furious detective. She did some investigating of her own. Her new team found a pattern of sorts. Social networking, it’s as bad as it is good, they had some tips to earlier crimes, one of them had an idea ran some algorithms and found the culprits, when they checked it was actual video footage of them beating the crap out of Steve. All of it posted under their real names on their public profiles on Facebook. Proud of themselves they were, they saw and filmed you two kissing and have admitted to following and 'purifying' him. But even better than that they’re now on the hook for up to twelve unsolved hate crimes on HPD’s books, simply from their personal Facebook accounts."

"I want five minutes with them." Danny growled from between tightly clenched teeth.

"That might be a little redundant, brah. It seems they resisted arrest. Who knew HPD had it in for them. Chin has had words with them too. He wouldn't let me help."

Danny smiled grimly, HPD might not agree with a lot of Steve's methods but he was still one of their own and as such under the umbrella of their brotherhood of protection. He may not be a favored member by all but as one of them they would do whatever it took to protect him.

"You should go home, get some sleep, you don't want to scare him away when he wakes up. I can sit with him until you come back." Kono suggested, tucking her hair behind her ear she watched him mull the idea over.

"Thank you for offering, but I want to be here when he wakes up and you know what he's like. He'd be waking up the minute I left the building, just to be contrary. You should go though. One of us should be getting some sleep."

"If it's okay with you, I'd rather stay. I'll just catch a nap in the waiting room." She clasped him by the shoulders and turned him towards Steve's room. "Go look after your man."

If the situation hadn't been the way it was Danny would've laughed at the lascivious eyebrow waggling that accompanied Kono's statement. As it was he playfully slapped her before pulling her into a tight embrace, and then returned to Steve's bedside. He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against Steve’s bruised forehead before he moved to the farthest corner of the room, dialling a familiar number as he stared out the window.

“Lori Weston.” She answered at the second trill of her phone.

“Lori.” Danny spoke softly into his mouthpiece.

“What can I do for you Detective Williams?” she responded coldly.

“Listen. When I called before? I might have been a little out of sorts.” Danny stated.

“Out of sorts?” Lori laughed snarkily. “That’s an understatement.”

“I’m trying to apologise here, Weston.” Danny huffed into the phone.

“It was nothing to do with me Danny. It was a pair of homophobic punks who think they’re purifying the world. Not. Me.”

“I know, and I’m sorry, okay?”

“Yeah,” Lori sighed tiredly, “I get it. How is he?”

“Still unconscious.” Danny shrugged as if she could see him. “Looks like shit.” Danny laughed mirthlessly.

“He’ll be fine.” Lori soothed him.

“Yeah, Super SEAL always is.” Danny nodded, before letting his forehead press against the cool glass window.

“You’ll let me know how he is?” Lori murmured.

“Of course.” Danny answered quickly. “I truly am sorry.” 

“Don’t worry about it, I probably would have reacted similarly.” Lori said goodbye and disconnected the call.

Danny slipped his phone into his pocket and turned, leaning back against the window, his hands jammed in his pockets as he watched Steve.

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Fourteen hours later, Danny was really starting to worry. He had tried to rest, his head leaning against the edge of Steve's bed, his fingers touching Steve's gently, but he couldn't. He had spoken himself hoarse, telling Steve things that he would never utter if he was awake. Instead of Steve opening his eyes, Danny was reduced to enduring Chin and Kono's hourly visits, accepting the fresh coffee they thrust towards him. The only time he left the bedside was to visit the toilet, and that was only to go as far as the utilitarian bathroom attached to Steve's private room. The rest of the time he sat there hoarsely speaking to Steve.

Exhausted, he rested his head against the bed, watching as he laced and unlaced his fingers with Steve's good hand, which was how he realised Steve was waking up. He pulled his hand gently from under Steve's, the unconscious man's fingers weakly gripping his own. Danny sprang to his feet so fast that the chair clattered to the floor behind him, wincing as the sudden noise caused Steve's brow to furrow.

"Steve?" Danny murmured, reaching out one hand to gently stroke Steve's cheek. "You in there buddy?"

"Where else would I be Danny? Steve's voice was hoarse and raspy but to Danny it was music to his ears. He reached out with one hand to press Steve's call button to alert the medical staff to his improved condition, with the other he gently turned Steve's face just enough so that he could press a soft kiss to Steve's chapped lips.

"Did we get them?" Steve asked, his eyes finally opening as much as they could with the swelling and bruising.

"The bad guys. Did this? " Steve croaked back at him.

"Yeah. They did and we did babe." Danny frowned, "Wait.....what's the last thing you remember?"

"Kissing you, I think." Steve responded slowly.

"You don't remember the men that did this to you?"

"No, just kissing you." Steve answered. 

Danny grinned as he realised that his partner truly was going to be alright.

"Well what can I say? Something's are just impossible to forget."

Danny could barely wipe the grin off his face as he leaned in and pressed his lips against Steve’s bruised forehead. 

It had been twenty four hours spent going from heaven to hell but now there was hope for them and a future.

Together.


End file.
